December 12, 2007

Homework:
Completing the sentence unit 6
(Must underline/highlight context clues.)

Today:
Sections 3,6, and 7 finished the agreement unit today. They took the end of the unit assessment.
Sections 1 and 2 got an introduction to the next writing assignment: The DuPont Challenge 2008 It is a contest!

More details about the essay will follow; however, the website is great! One reason I want to do the essay is because it is sponsored by DuPont, a local company. The essay also ties in with science and technology, a hot topic in education today. Furthermore, the guidelines and suggestions on the site spell out exactly what students need to create. After seeing how well students researched for the love essays, I know they will do well on this essay. I also plan to come up with a plan for submitting the essays for the contest.

For this essay I will focus on research skills, organization, comparing and scoring essays, and voice. We will look at some of the love essays to discuss how to organize our research. The sample for the contest is good, but it is so dry. I want to help students create a persuasive essay filled with scientific details that is interesting to read.

Research will be done next week, during break if they are dedicated, and during the first week back to school. After that, the students will be organizing and writing. The contest requires the papers to be submitted by January 28. We will be done before that.

Different classes will have different requirements. I will make those decisions as the unit progresses. Not all students are able to write a 700-1000 word essay. However, some students will be challenged to stay below 1000 words! This should be fun.